AlienBandit

Getting used to your body takes time. Trust me, I am still not used to my body. I was starting to accept it though I didnt see myself as being thin but then i had a tummy tuck and have to try to get used my body all over again. You have lost 80lbs! That is great! Your body is changing still and will continue to change as you lose weight. JDon't worry your skin will change too. Keep trying hard and working out. You are becoming a healthy you

I love wordpress. I was using blogspot or something before and it was terrible. Wordpress is organized very well i find and I have never had a problem using it. Yes I have the free version. If I was making another blog I would def use wordpress.

My doctor said once my incisions were healed a bath was ok. However if you can find really good waterproof bandages, those works too

Heather, I recently fell off the wagon as well. For me when this happens I do a few things. If I need a fill I get one ( got one last week ) I also try to exercise more and reduce my carbs. If I have trouble getting back into healthy eating I do the 5 day pouch test. It is easy for me to do the 5 day pouch test right after a fill because you should be doing a few days of liquids anyways. This website is certainly a great place Happy weight loss

You and I are almost in the same boat. However I never had problems with my fills until my doctor moved my port. It is now under my muscles. My first few fills post op moving my port were fine. My doc could feel and poke and be successful the first try. Recently I had a tummy tuck and I am still a little swollen, but was dying for a fill so my doc said he could give me one. After checking with anultrasound to find my port he poked me and missed. It was so painful because he was poking and poking through my muscles. Then he tried again and missed again. He used the ultrasound and tried again and missed again. Then I went for an xray which he looked at and then tried again and missed again. It wasn't until he took a very large pillow and put it under my lower back so my stomach was up high in the air that he was able to hit my port. Gosh my muscles were sore for days after that. Anyways I feel your pain freaking out, not wanting another surgery etc. I was so worried but everything worked out. Sometimes our ports hide a bit. I am sure everything will be fine. Maybe your doctor should try the pillow trick? Good luck

What band do you have? I have never heard of a 12cc band unless your doc is considering the tubing to hold the last 1cc. There are 11cc bands out ther I know. I used to have a 11cc SAG band ( generation before realize) and my doc thought I would be good at 7cc. However even at 10cc I wasn't at my sweet spot and I know someone else who had that band and had 11cc in the band. Everyone is different. Stomachs are different. Bands are different. I now have the lapband which has a different style then SAG and realize and I have almost perfection restriction at 4.5cc in a 10cc band. Its strange to think I once had 10cc filled in an 11cc band when I know that much fill would kill me with this different band

The first little while it might take some getting used to having the band before you love it. Just think if you got the sleeve you might have regretted it and wished you had gotten the band. I think we have all been there. Been stressed, not losing lots of weight, regreting our decisions etc. Heck I have been there a few times and even considered getting the sleeve again after my first band complications. However I love my band and decided tostick with it even when I could have changed to the sleeve. Keep your chin up things will get better. Just remember atleast your not gaining weight

this website is driving me nuts. I am about ready to give up and stop trying to get on!

What is this pain like? I had erosion but we caught it really early. It was 3mm in size and I didn't even really know I had it. How I got to the point of getting an endoscope check was I had acid reflux one night, my tubing hurt ( which can mean infection or erosion) and I had some weird stomach pains sometimes at the top of my stomach. My doc decided right away to check and sure enough there was erosion. I was completely unfilled for 2 weeks and on meds. After 2 weeks we checked my stomach again and it was healing really well ( photo here http://alienbanditinkorea.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/home-from-the-hospital-and-photos/) so my doctor said I had 2 choices. I could have my band removed, wait 3 months and get a new one or he could keep me unfilled and stitch my stomach on the inside and wait for me to heal before giving me a fill. I decided to have my band removed and waited a few months before gettng a different one. I am now 7 months post op my second band and no problems of erosion

Life with the band is different but you learn to live with it. I have been banded on and off for a year and a half and sometimes I forget I have the band. I am so used to the way I eat that I don't think twice sometimes about food it is more a hmm what to eat for dinner well how about blah blah blah and I just know that things like bread etc wont be eaten. The band is not something that will hang over your head and take over your life. It is a lifestyle change. However this is not the easy way out. If you dont watch your eating and dont exercise then you can easily gain weight and think that the band was a waste of time because you are working just as hard before the band. I have had some problems lately and havent been able to go gyming and I need a fill and I gained 6 pounds! My doctor will surely kill me when I see him next but this is a learning experience really. Good luck! This is a great choice your making

I find if I use a bit of benefiber every morning with my coffee everything works out fine. Sometimes if I have problems I have to change my diet. I know what really gets me going is nachos ( bad I know but it works), nuts, and kimchi ( something you probably dont know). Hopefully you can find some things that will work for you. It's all about relearning how to eat, live and poop lol

I know these might be some weird suggestions but living a country where I can't seem to find many things like MOM, etc here are some solutions I have found sometimes work to help move things along Brown rice Bananas ( ie low cal banana bread I make) Beans yogurt ( Probiotics help) flax seed ( can get at costco add to yogurt, shakes, etc) coffee kimchi lots of Water aloe juice lots of exercise coffee covered nuts ( from my experience) Benefiber ( shipped from Canada) dried mangoes prunes prune juice Right now if I have any problems I try coffee with some benefiber. I also have a backup senecot but I dont use it often at all. Usually something on this list helps. You also dont want to over do it because then you might have major diarrhea problems!

When I had my first band surgery I came out with 4 incisions. Here is a post with a photos of my incisions and how they looked after some time http://alienbanditinkorea.wordpress.com/2010/09/27/band-and-lipo-scar-photos/ Since I have had a few surgeries I have a few different scars that are all at different stages of healing. I really must do another post like this again soon. My last band surgery was July and the scars from that time are not even noticeable unless you within 12inches of my stomach staring at them as I point to them.

Our goal weights are all dfferent because we have a different 'goal' in the end. Some of us want a low bmi, certain fat percent, certain amount lost etc. If you are happy at a certain weight and your doc is saticfied with what you want as your goal weight I yhink that is fine. You might down the line your goal weight might change again. My goal has always been 130 but I could never get past 150lbs so I have always had negative feelings towards 150lbs. However i am there now and was almost happy with my body so Imoved my goal weight to 140 and now 145. I might never get to 145 so if not 150 is ok but the highest i ever want to be.

Sure ifferent people have failed with the band for many different reasons. Some people dont realize the work needed with the band expecting itto be a magic wand thus disappointing them. Some dont change their diets good enough or keep up with bandster rules preventing them from losing weight. Some dont keep up withxdoc visigs and fills which can prevent success and others have complications that can prevent or stall weight loss If you follOw your doctors orders, eat well , exercise and work witj your band you can be a success

I ve done the pouch test twice and blogged about it. You can search it on my blo if you want to see what I ate during that time

Whats your band size and fill size? I had the SAG band which is an earlier version of realize and I need a fill of atleast 10cc before i had restriction. I also had to push myself at the gym to lose weight. It isnt easy but you can do this!

You should really call your doctor. It could be an infection or something not good. I started to get a pain an hour after my recent doc appointment and not even 2 days later unable to eat or drink wihout being in pain and also not being able tO move much etc I went back for a check up and was admitted right away and given tons of meds to avoif infection whic might be causing my band pain Good luck

I was 77 kg when I started doing lipo on different parts of my body. In lbs I didnt get my tummy tuck till i was 155 which was 10-15 from goal. Now i think i might settle at 145-150. I think it is best to wait until you atleas 20 lbs from goal before doing tucks etc but lipo before that is ok

My port wasn noticable until I lost a lot of weight. Finally I had a tummy tuck (well 3 ..... LOng story) and my port was moved under my muscle and now it is impossible to see or feel. There are people who have revision surgeries to move their ports if they do stick out. My blog has photos to show how my port used to stick put beside my belly button

My scars all look different depending on how they healed. If they healed right away then it is hard to see them. If they look a few weeks to heal then they are darker. Here is an old post of mine showing.... I think 12 scars at the time from my band, and plastics adventures. I will post another new photo soon since this was almost 6 months ago http://alienbanditinkorea.wordpress.com/2010/09/27/band-and-lipo-scar-photos/

I had cold feet up until the minute they were knocking me out. Literally as I was lying on the table I tried to tell my doc I didn't want to do the surgery anymore and then BAM I woke up, everything was over and I was so glad I didn't get to finish my sentence. Don't worry we all go through this and I think it is the anticipation of it all that is so freaky. I can't imagine having to wait a few months or over a year before being banded. That would freak me out even more. Since I was self pay my consultation and surgery happened within a month of each other. Maybe that was a good idea or maybe it wasn't. I think if I had to wait longer I would have backed out.

I have a big problem with needles and when I say big I mean HUGGGGEEE! I am totaly freaked out by them. It seems stupid to get the band with such a problem with needles and pain but it was worth it. I am just so afraid of pain and always thought fills would hurt. I used to get my doc to freeze my stomach before a fill because I thought it would be so painful bu the fill needle. Though the thought of two needles in me was scary the thought of a painful fill was scarier. One time my doc convinced me to try a fill without freezing and it didn't hurt at all. It is just a little prink and then it's over. Now my port is located under my muscles which causes more pain but it is still not that bad. (and of course I am still afraid of needles). They will fill your band from where your port is located usualy near your biggest incision.

My brain and eyes havent connected yet with my true image. I felt skinnier at 170 lbs then I do not at 150 pounds. WhenI look at myself in the mirror I still see the big me. It has gotten harder to see myself sometimes because now I have had some plastics done I really dont recognize myself and I sometimes wonder who is looking back at me in the mirror. Maybe I should have accepted myself more before plastics or maybe it is good I didn't get used to the flabby me before I changed again. Who knows right? But either way I am with you guys of not used to the new and still changing me!

When I was first banded I could eat almost the same amount of food I did before surgery if I wanted to. I howver reduced my portion sizes. Once my fill was at a good amount I thought I was eating up to 1 cup of food per meal until a month later when I found a large measuring cup which turned out to be my 1 cup measuring cup and i had been eating 1/2 a cup per meal or less for a month and had no idea ( the writing is very small on my cups so I never read the number)